I’m creating a small photography membership; not a course, and not a busy online group; but a calm, supportive space for people who want to slow down, notice more, and grow in confidence with their photography.   It values care over speed, encouragement over competition, and attention over noise. It’s built on the belief that learning to see takes time, and that the right environment makes all the difference.

Prayer changes perspective. It shifts you from replaying the offence to seeing a human being again — sometimes broken, sometimes blind, always accountable, but no longer in charge of your inner world. And it can change the other person too: softening what’s hardened, interrupting patterns, opening a door you couldn’t force.

Celebrating 2025 in Pictures is a stroll through some of the images I’ve used this year to illustrate the joy of photography. As I share and celebrate the year in photographs, I hope you’ll 'join the walk', the same quiet lesson I’ve been learning: to stop more, look more, and accept the images that waft into your awareness.

The weather is broken cloud, the sun peeking through, then hiding again. You’re in the mood for looking, for noticing. Seeking something quirky in this seemingly rather featureless wintery lane, as a diversion from Christmas 'festivities' perhaps. You might start to notice a few things; the way the recycled road material has formed a pebbly surface, with shapes and shadows. The trees either side of you, and the way their trunks sit in parallel up to the sky.

Friday Photo Inspiration. Simple Photography Tips “No-one But You Walks Your Journey”

Perhaps rather blunt, but sunrise and sunset photography centre around the appearance or disappearance of an immensely bright splodge of light, either appearing over the horizon or sinking below the horizon. There's nothing unusual about this, happens every day, has been for a few years now, and God-willing, will continue to. Photographically it's pretty boring, and it needs a number of add-ons to give it interest, certainly if you want to print it for others to enjoy.

It strikes me that many of the highest peaks, the best outlooks, and the ultimate goals all require zig-zags, the willingness to turn from the straight way, even if you can't see the reason. It may not be a cliff as in the picture, but you never know what lies ahead.

In summary; it matters whether the subject is moving into the picture or out of it. In terms of 'story', it changes how the viewer reads the story, feels about the moment and how direction changes this.

The overall conclusion I'd like you to take with you is that there is very rarely a day devoid of photographic opportunity - you just need to stop and settle, and maybe imagine your'e a modern-day Monet, looking for the light to guide you.

Out for a few minutes walk before meeting Favourite Middle Daughter for a before work coffee from Roc and Floss at the market. I was able to capture a short video demonstrating how to use existing objects to cut the lens flare that occurs from bright light entering the lens at the wrong angle - this is usually sunlight, but can also be streetlights etc.

Please go and try it, take yourself, with family if you have one, and just play the game - it is surely one of the most mentally restorative things you can do. Especially if you pause and admire the leaf you catch. You're even allowed to smile, laugh, yell, squeal or whatever - this is complete release.

In terms of Simple Photography Tips there's an interesting exercise you might benefit from; try in your imagination re-positioning the yacht, and seeing how the balance changes and how the significance of the various parts of the image change.

1. Fog hides distractions. Third picture, misty day is like you've slung a big sheet from a couple of helicopters; background gone, eye focuses on the tree. 2. Try black and white I've turned both images to monochrome, you can see that the colour complicates the image too much. 3. Use roads as leading lines Oh, and the road running from either sides, makes visual use of the interesting thirds, and takes the eye straight towards the subject.

We had arrived at Far del Cap Salines moments after the sun had set, thinking we'd missed the show, but then the sky caught fire - it got better than this, but my i-phone died through lack of battery. --aaaghh.

With the person in the water, the eye lands first on the area of the fishermans huts and the rib, then immediately responds to the contrast of the figure in the water - so it's a bit like a visual see-saw - with image four providing a double see-saw with one fulcrum being, like the other two, the mid-point between the fishing huts and the bather, There is another line sort of running vertically between the woman and the rib.

The words on the wall advertising a restaurant in Ses Saline (Triple Restaurant FYI, and a great place for lunch) save me putting anything else.

A friend suggested that I share some of the images, with the thought that you may one day go on a trip that you want to take images of with a view to telling a visual story of the trip - Storytelling through Pictures.

The beauty of late summer is with us, I refuse to call it autumn yet, for my mental health's sake. This year the hedgerows, woods and orchards are dripping with harvest.

It's so easy you know, to slip out of touch. But it's also a good thing to make the effort, and get in touch. Perhaps you've fallen out with someone - it's actually eating away at you, and it will be for them as well. One of you has to make the first effort - why not make it you?

Yes, sometimes my mantra of 'look until you see' is necessarily tempered by the desirability of not missing the moment - and experience with reading the signs helps. Grab the moment, and re-shoot if it gets better. So two things I want to chat about, the first is the one addressed already, the need for character to produce emotive coastal images. The other is what lens to use with your iphone, other phone camera, or camera.